


A Spark in the Dark

by ShadowBirdie51



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: And a Good Helping of Angst, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Pitch Pearl, Separate Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom, Slow Burn, Soul Bond (Sort of?), Tags and rating will probably change over time, ghost science, i don't know how to tag, tons of fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 10:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25848340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowBirdie51/pseuds/ShadowBirdie51
Summary: When a ghost begins to attack Danny's dreams, the halfa finds himself relying on the one person he least expected to help him out of his own head. Once free, Danny finds himself unable to erase the experience from his thoughts. Was Phantomreallyhelping him, or was he just a figment of Danny's imagination? In his quest to find answers, Danny stumbles onto a number of revelations about himself and Phantom that turns his entire perception of the past few years upside down.Thing is, Phantom reallywasalways there, looking after his Spark. If it weren't for that dream-altering menace, he never would have known that Danny was completely oblivious to it... and Danny would have never found out he existed.Or, a continuation of the show that delves into a different take on the episode "Frightmare," which completely alters the ending of the series and (hopefully) explains a few things along the way.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom
Comments: 20
Kudos: 78





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so this is something that I've had in my head for a while now. It's my first ever go at a FanFic, but I really wanted to get this idea out into the world somehow. You can thank the kind people on the DP Pitch Pearl server for convincing me to try writing it out. I especially want to thank Dream_Trance, who has been really helpful in beta reading this fic.

**_0 Days Since the Accident_ **

**_(Early July)_ **

Nothing existed, only an endless emptiness. There was no cold or warmth, sunlight or shadows. No sense of space, nor direction. In essence, nothing was nothing and nothing was  _ everything.  _ An utter void save for a parcel of thought in the form of a little green ball of light, suspended alone.

It took a long time for the tiny trace of energy to identify itself as  _ Something. _ Once it began to think and wonder, imagination took hold. It amused itself with thoughts about the emptiness and, unintentionally, made the significant observation that it was itself and nothing was Everything Else. The light liked that thought, the idea of being unique. It grasped at the notion and held on tight, trying to make sense of what it could mean.

Over a long contemplation, the light became aware of an emptiness deep inside its glow, beyond its pure white center. An incompleteness, almost, as if something were missing. Something important. But since there was nothing to be done about it, the light did its best to ignore the inner, invisible darkness. 

The emptiness, all-encompassing as it was, however, began to warp the light into wondering if it wasn’t special at all; that maybe it was just an extended piece of Everything Else. The light didn’t like that thought and tried to find a way to disprove it. Soon, reasoning became a concept that was foreign, but welcome. The light took comfort in the idea that if there was no such thing as  _ reasoning, _ then it wouldn’t exist, because in order to make sense of something, something had to exist to do just that.

It was in this way that the little light convinced itself that it was Something Else.

But this acceptance of its own singularity led to a startling question, the light’s first true question, of if it was the only thing that was different in the void. The thought made the light flicker and the internal emptiness seemed to spread just a little further. The light grew dull, until it was just a spec of white with nearly no rim of green, as if the dark had stolen a piece of it back. 

For what was the point of reasoning if there was nothing to reason  _ with? _

It wallowed dimly until the light realized that the void was Something Else, so by that definition it wasn’t alone. An indescribable rising thing filled the hole inside it at the thought, but only partially. While the light never returned to being as bright as it had been, it had won, for now, against the void.

This was how the tiny light stayed, a sliver of green surrounding its white, incomplete center. Circling back and forth, reasoning and debunking its own existence within a place where time didn’t matter.

It was never-ending. 

Until, in an instant, something changed.

Without any warning, the light was shoved away from the void and into something  _ solid, _ as if the darkness was suddenly repulsed by its presence. The surrounding emptiness grew heavy as if it were trying to squash the light's existence with a mind-numbing pressure. This feeling, the first one the little light had ever experienced, was unbearable. An agonizing thing that, while only lasting a few moments, threatened to rip it apart into a new form of nothing.

Scrabbling for anything to make the ache stop, the light found itself powerless as it was pushed from the dark by a continuous jolting shock. One moment it was being pressed into something and the next, the barrier it was being rammed into gave way. Immediately, the light was filled with its first taste of sweet  _ sensation, _ just under the crushing weight. Desperate, it grasped at whatever the feeling was, and a burst of sturdy  _ warmth _ unlike anything the light had ever experienced filled the empty hole that had plagued it for so long. Slowly, the dreaded pressure was replaced by an odd tingly sensation that was both new and strange, but not unwelcome.

It floated, stunned as the darkness around it lifted. Not necessarily becoming bright, but no longer pitch-black either. The light grew cold, the thought of temperature jarring it to the core. In shock, it hugged the warmth closer, feeling the other presence with a disbelieving flicker, so foreign was it from anything the light had ever known. 

Almost immediately another undefinable, unpleasant thing seeped from the darkness around it. Unlike the terrible bursting sensation or the pleasant warmth, this strange feeling squeezed its center uncomfortably. The light didn’t know what to make of it, this paralyzing force that seemed to seep from all corners of the void, intensifying into a crippling thing that had the light flickering in rapid bursts as it tried to coherently think through this temporary madness.

A thought occurred to it then, small and fleeting, and the concept of movement was born. It didn’t know how, but the light could tell that it had traveled to a new place, somehow. So maybe it could do it again on a much smaller scale? For the first time in its existence, it decided to shift position. To do so, the light reluctantly released the warmth and tried to drift away. To the light’s amazement, it was able to float a good deal from where it had been, and, like it had hoped, the urgent tightness in its center lessened, though an odd jitteriness lingered.

The little light’s mind rang in triumph and, with its newfound ability, rose higher in the dark. It circled the source of the warmth, wondering just what exactly it was, eventually coming to rest directly above the strange thing. It was here, as it was pondering, that the little light came to a surprising revelation. The void it had once called home was replaced by a lesser darkness that felt… nice. For some inexplicable reason, the nothing didn’t feel quite as empty as before. 

So… perhaps that warmth was another Something?

A burst of rising cold swelled inside the light, intensifying until it radiated bright green and it’s outer glow became nearly blinding. The feeling was the opposite of what the warmth was like and the light reveled in being able to understand the difference. A bubbly sensation, one that made it feel somehow lighter, made the light circle and bob around it’s little warm friend in a giddy excitement. For reasons it couldn’t fathom, the light knew that it wasn’t incomplete any longer. Its center grew brighter at the realization, a glimmer of warm blue light now swirling amongst the cold white where its inner emptiness had once been.

Whole. The light felt  _ whole. _

* * *

**_3 Years Since the Accident (Mid-September)_ **

**_(Mid-September)_ **

A thrilled whooping call echoed through the otherwise silent streets of Amity Park. Danny Phantom streaked through the night sky, a blur of black and white barely visible as he darted across his home. Wind flattened white hair away from the ghost boy’s acidic green eyes and a large uncontrolled grin stretched across his face as he twisted through the familiar air currents. Behind him, his ghostly tail gave the illusion of some sort of glowing aura being left in his wake, like a comet's trail.

He came close to a skyscraper in one of his turns and followed the sharp angle straight up into the night sky. There was a barrier of clouds in his path but the ghost boy just flew right through, undeterred by their dark presence. With a deliberate flick of his tail he spun out of the heavy clouds that hung above the town and hovered for only a moment, tilting backwards as his legs materialized. Stars blanketed the sky and silhouetted the moon above him, a purple color beginning to emerge from the deep blue, signaling early morning. Phantom’s grin widened impossibly as he let gravity reclaim him. With an echoing, hearty laugh that anyone even remotely awake below would have heard, he closed his eyes and dropped head first through the sky. 

He couldn’t see the ground rapidly approaching, but he could feel the cold air rushing across his skin through the black and white jumpsuit he wore, smell the slightly wet morning air, and hear the deafening whistle of who-knows-how-many mile-an-hour winds rushing past his ears.

There were no ghosts to threaten him in the free fall, no worries about his family or fear for his friends, and no stress from school. It was amazing.

Here in this moment, Phantom felt utterly and truly free. 

He opened his eyes, pure joy emanating from the bright green as he watched the ground rush up to meet him, waiting for the perfect moment to pull up and—

Loud knocking shattered the dream and Danny made a disappointed sound as the image of freedom crashed and burned, fading into nothing. He curled into his blanket, trying to will the lost dream back into his head. Just a few more minutes, that was all he needed. 

“Danny, it’s time for school!” His mother called from behind his bedroom door. “If you don’t get up now you’ll miss breakfast.”

With a groan, Danny pulled the blanket over his head, hiding his face from the suddenly too-bright sunlight streaming in from the window.

“Sweetie?”

Danny sighed, blinked his eyes open, and moved the blanket down just enough to stare at his firmly shut door. Groggily, he decided that he should probably answer rather than have his mom come in and realize that he  _ still _ hadn’t cleaned his room despite promising to do so over a week ago. 

“Yeah, just give me a minute.”

“Your cereal will be waiting for you!” His mother’s footsteps retreated down the hall, Danny listening as she left.

A few more moments of silence passed as Danny basked in the aftermath of a rare good night's sleep. Then he sat up and stretched, back straightening and popping, his muscles feeling loose and relaxed, though still heavy and sluggish. He sighed, the memory of the dream vivid in his mind. It had been so real; Danny could still feel the familiar numbing cold in his cheeks that flight often caused. His heartbeat was racing with a small dose of adrenaline and his core was thrumming with a pleased thrill. Danny couldn’t help a small smile at the lingering sensation, his eyes drooping in contented drowsiness. 

“Danny,” his sister, Jazz, called lightly through the door. “You have a quiz today. Don’t fall asleep again or you might be late.”

With that warning, the peacefulness evaporated and Danny’s eyes opened again so that he could give his star-covered ceiling a dignified pout. When the stars showed no sympathy for his abrupt loss, he sighed. 

“I’m up, Jazz.” 

“Was just making sure!” 

He heard her run downstairs, probably to prevent whatever food that was being made from suddenly springing to life. Danny ran a hand through his dark hair and pressed a palm to his eyes in an attempt to scrub the sleepiness away. He didn’t feel like fighting breakfast today and the longer he waited, the higher the chance  _ something _ would happen. So, still half-asleep, he hopped off his bed and threw on his favorite white and red shirt and a pair of baggy jeans before heading down himself. 

Danny had just reached the bottom of the stairs when a loud explosion rocked the house. He stumbled and caught himself on the railing behind him, shutting his eyes and coughing as the smell of charred ectoplasm filled his nose. A cloud of smoke was billowing through the open hall, saturating everything with the acidic, citrus-like stench. Danny waved his hand to try and get rid of it, with little success, and made his way to the kitchen where three other distinct people could be heard coughing, too.

If his parents hadn’t been up all night tinkering then Danny would have been a little more worried. As it was, Danny took his time to pause at the entrance and lean just enough out of the hall to look into the room; he didn’t want to stumble into anything that might accidentally try and kill him. 

As the smoke dispersed, courtesy of his mother opening a window, Danny could see scraps of metal and pieces of glowing green wire scattered across the kitchen table. A tub of glowing ectoplasm had spilled onto the floor, creating a small green river that flowed across the tile. Near the middle of the goo’s journey a dropped vial of yellow liquid had burnt a chunk of the ectoplasm away and scorched the nearby tiles with a definitive blast mark. It took Danny a while to realize that the black hoop in his father’s hands and the unattached stand leaning against the table were suspiciously similar to that of a much older invention he was all too familiar with: the _ Ghost Catcher.  _ The other mechanical parts scattered on the table must have been new attachments of some sort. 

He shuddered, remembering it. While the last adventure of being split from his ghost half had been...  _ interesting, _ Danny hadn’t really thought much of the machine since then. Having the memories of two different people’s versions of the same day had really muddled his mind once he’d gotten put back together again. Not only that, but his entire sense of time, emotional compass, and ability to feel things with his hands had been completely scrambled for weeks afterwards. It had made keeping up with school work and hero activities just that much more difficult, as coordination without all five of his senses cooperating was almost impossible.

The experience, overall, was just the right amount of weird and exhausting to make Danny not want a repeat performance, if only to avoid the rebound of being split apart physically and mentally. So Danny eyed the separated hoop warily, making a mental note to stay as far from it as possible. He got the feeling another trip through the thing would not end on such a good note as last time. 

“Hey, Danno!” Jack glanced up through a pair of dark goggles as his son deemed the room safe enough to enter. A wide grin spread across the man’s face despite the black ash covering his entire head and jumpsuit-protected torso. “Take a look at this! I’ve been working on it nonstop and I’ve just about got it tuned to  _ perfection!” _

Judging by the odd greenish-yellow fumes leaking out of the Catcher’s hoop, Danny doubted that. He offered his dad a nervous smile and made his way around the stream of glowing ectoplasm towards where his sister sat protectively shielding two bowls from the toxic spray. She slid one over to him after judging that the coast was clear and offered a smile of her own. 

“Thanks,” Danny said appreciatively and started shoveling cereal into his mouth at a breakneck speed while his dad continued. 

“Introducing the  _ Ghost Catcher 2.0!” _ Jack held up the modified hoop, which now had a clear tube filled with an odd lime green substance slightly off color than normal ectoplasm attached to its circumference. “Not only does it eject anything spectral from a host, but it deconstructs the ghost into goop instantly upon release!” 

Without the slightest bit of hesitation Jack retrieved a hissing hotdog—a Terrordog as Jazz liked to call them—from a silver cooler that rested on the floor beside him and held up the possessed piece of meat triumphantly for his kids to see. 

Jazz sent Danny a wide-eyed look and pushed her bowl under the table between them both warily. “Here we go again.”

Their mother, Maddie, who had been preoccupied with getting rid of the remaining smoke by fanning it out the window with a towel, turned upon realizing what was happening.  _ “Jack!” _

But she was too late. 

Danny didn’t have any time to question either of them before his dad tossed the Terrordog through the Catcher’s hoop. A thin wall of lime green smoke vented out of the added tubing and coated the strings in a sticky, glowing, gel-like substance. The Terrordog passed through the intangible webbing of the Catcher’s center and screeched as it was split into two, the now lifeless hotdog half falling to the table while a green ball of ecto-energy floated towards the ceiling. The creature growled and slowly started to grow bigger, going from a tiny squeaking ball of goo into a large, guttural blob of rage. 

“Oh,” Jack blinked. “That wasn’t supposed to happen…”

The still-growing energy of the former Terrordog dived towards Jack, directing its anger at the person who dared to try and destroy it. A familiar whirring noise was all the warning the creature got before it was blasted into a spray of glowing goop that splattered across the kitchen in a sticky mess of burnt citrus. 

Behind Danny and Jazz, Maddie lowered her ectogun and frowned at Jack, who sent her a sheepish smile. 

“No more testing at the table today, hun. Ok?”

“But,  _ Mads... _ I just need to iron out this serum and I’m  _ so close—” _

At that point, Danny tuned his parents out and looked down at his now ectoplasm-covered cereal with a frown. He wiped the ghost goop from his face and set his spoon back into the now inedible mixture. 

“Sorry,” Jazz winced, lifting her clean bowl out from under the table. “I guess I should have grabbed yours, too.”

Danny waved her off. “It’s fine. _ ”  _ He made sure that their parents weren’t paying any attention before turning himself intangible, the sticky ectoplasm falling through his clothes and onto the floor. He poked his sister’s shoulder and she sighed in relief as the glowing green splatters that had covered her shirt also disappeared. In thanks she stood and grabbed Danny a mostly unscathed banana from the counter to replace his lost meal. 

“Just think,” she said, returning to her seat. “Today’s Friday and we have a long weekend coming up.”

“Yeah?”

Jazz raised an eyebrow at her brother’s confusion. “Yeah. You didn’t know?”

Danny shook his head.

“But you  _ do _ know what day it is, right?”

“...Friday?”

His sister sighed. “Mom and dad have been planning a barbecue all week, remember? To celebrate getting some new investors interested in funding their inventions. Today is when they’re going to start sending out invitations. Did you forget?” 

“No!”

_ Yes.  _ But Danny wasn’t going to admit that. Instead he took a large bite out of the banana and tried to eat it as fast as he could before another mishap took the rest of his breakfast away.

Luckily, Jazz didn't press. “The barbecue is going to take a lot of their focus. You just have to hold out until they're distracted.”

Danny watched as his dad held up a modified plastic soda bottle filled with the odd greenish-yellow ectoplasmic mixture for Maddie to see. Attached to its top was the end of one of the tubes, the other end looping around the Ghost Catcher before disappearing beneath the table. Somehow, Jack had managed to get his wife interested in discussing how the serum worked, rather than her convincing him to put it and the rest of the machine away.

Danny doubted the barbecue would be able to distract them from this particular invention, and unlike his sister, he couldn’t afford to hope. 

“Do you want me to drive you today?” Jazz asked in between her now rapidly moving spoon, noting her brother’s silence.

Danny finished off the last of his banana and lined up a toss with the garbage can in the corner of the room. He considered his sister’s offer for a moment, but shook his head and sent the peel flying into its final destination. “No; I think I’m going to walk.” And by  _ walk _ , he really meant  _ fly, _ if only to get a little of that rush from earlier back. 

His sister nodded. “Nice one. You’re getting better at that.” She gestured to the trashcan. 

“You think?”

“Mhmm.”

Danny straightened in his seat, subconsciously puffing out his chest a little like he sometimes did as Phantom, with a small proud smile. To be honest, he’d been practicing his aim in human form, as he’d never really been good at… well, anything in human form. Solid arms were very different from the floaty weightlessness of his ghost half and it always threw him off when it came to judging distances and how much power to use. He was getting quick on his feet thanks to a workout routine that Sam had started him and Tucker on last year and that coupled with the near-constant ghost attacks meant that he was getting stronger. Or, at least Danny hoped he was. But he still needed to work on arm strength, which usually came in the form of various exercises courtesy of the PE teacher’s rigorous routine and Sam’s own idea of training. 

Speaking of school…

“I think I’m going to head out,” Danny said as he stood from the table. “See if I can catch Sam and Tucker before the quiz.” 

“Ok; tell them I said hi!”

Danny gave his sister a thumbs up before heading towards the door where his new galaxy-patterned bookbag was lying against the nearby wall. He’d left it there the night before, too tired to carry it up the stairs after it had slipped from his shoulders. He slung it on, shouted a “see you later” to Jazz and their parents, and walked out. 

The street was empty, but Danny ducked behind the Ghost Assault Vehicle as an extra precaution before trying to shift. Out of sight from the street and possible nosy onlookers, he closed his eyes and reached for that little ball of cold nestled somewhere near his heart. There was a brief spark when he found it, a white ring appearing around his waist before splitting into two, traveling up and down his body as the cold reached back to eagerly wrap around him with metaphorical open arms.

When he opened his eyes, acidic green replaced grey-blue, and in Danny Fenton’s place stood Danny Phantom. With a grin he kicked off the ground to float invisibly into the sky. He wasn’t in any rush to get to school and a quick detour would do little to cut into his time—unless another ghost showed up, but that was beside the point. 

With a laugh Danny shot forward. Once he was clear of his neighborhood, he dropped the invisibility. He zigzagged across town as fast as he could, a small funnel of disturbed wind trailing in his wake, sending fallen leaves and discarded newspapers flying in all directions as he passed. His core thrummed with energy as he banked left, then right, the chilly ectoplasm in his cheeks growing even colder in the wind, just like in his dream. 

He could feel his core light up with excitement, sending sparks of joy through his nerves that had Danny grinning almost as widely as he’d been while asleep. In all honesty, being a teenage superhero may have its terrible moments, but overall, it was rather awesome. Danny wouldn’t trade his half-life for anything. This feeling, alone, was worth it.

So Danny let the freedom of flight wash over him, laughing as he wasted a good chunk of time darting through the busy streets of Amity Park. On the third lap, he finally turned towards Casper High. He really did want to meet up with Sam and Tucker before class started. If his parents were having a barbecue this weekend, then he had to warn them that they were going to be on the receiving end of an egregious amount of invitations. 

He phased through the top of the school, heading down until he landed in the second floor janitor's closet; the one that had a broken lock. With a calming breath, he urged the coldness to retreat, thinking about his human self. Almost reluctantly, his core released him of its cold and a spark ignited around his waist, once again splitting into rings that returned Danny Fenton back to the land of the living. 

A quick peek through a crack between the door and it’s frame revealed the hall to be absolutely engulfed by students. They were packed in shoulder to shoulder with almost no space to move, which meant that there was barely any room for him to open the door without bumping into anyone. Still, Danny worried his lip as he waited for an opening. Luckily, a hulking student passed by the door, allowing Danny to intangibly slip out into the hallway behind the guy unnoticed. He melded into the crowd and made his way briskly towards his locker where he knew Sam and Tucker would be waiting for him, like they always did whenever he failed to meet them on the bus. 

Along the way he was jostled, pushed, and pulled by the crowd. There was nearly no space to walk at all, so Danny was constantly bumping into other kids who were shuffling along their own paths. He thought sticking to the lockers would make things easier, but nearly got squashed between them and a tuba near the band room. He would have been trampled on the floor if he’d been hit and gone down, and only avoided doing so because he’d been able to phase halfway through the incoming instrument on reflex. 

Eventually, Danny could hear his friends up ahead, Sam’s distinct voice rising above the ridiculously large cluster of teenagers clogging the end of the hall.

“Hey, guys!” Danny squeezed his way towards the goth, pressing himself flat against the lockers in an attempt to not be elbowed by any passing teens. “Is it just me, or did the hallway shrink?”

“From what I hear, something happened to the third floor,” Tucker said, similarly glued to his own locker with his trusty PDA held close to his nose. “Some sort of gas leak or something.”

“Everyone is trying to squeeze into the classrooms down here, now,” Sam added, looking up at the ceiling with a frown. She was the only one in the hall with a tiny two-foot ring of space around her, no-one wanting to experience the goth’s wrath by getting too close. “Hence the absence of personal space.”

Danny blinked. “I was just up there and I didn’t see anything. Also, Jazz says ‘hi’ by the way.”

“It could be a clear gas,” Tucker pointed out, pausing in his rapid button mashing to push his glasses up from where they had slid. “And tell Jazz, ‘thanks’ for us if we can't find her later.”

“Sure.”

“Did you sense anything?” Sam asked, as if she hadn’t heard the other two; which was entirely possible since they all had to practically shout to be heard over the chattering students surrounding them. Her voice was lower than than before and almost unintelligible through the background noise, though clearly a little less monotone at the thought of getting out of the stuffed hallway. Unfortunately, that hope was dashed when Danny shook his head.

His friend sighed and resumed her perpetual frown. “I still wouldn’t rule out something ghostly going on…”

“Lighten up,” Tucker grinned. “Less space to move means more chances to bump into a girl and, you know, dutifully help her pick up her books... and walk her to class.”

At his accompanying eyebrow-wiggle, Sam rolled her eyes and Danny snorted a laugh… perhaps a little too loudly given the odd look the goth sent his way. Despite that, Danny couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. Traces of energy from his flight were still coursing through him, leaving a giddy happiness radiating from his core straight into Danny’s bones. The knowledge that the situation with the gas was out of his hands was also a relief, even if there was barely any room to breathe in the hallway.

“Someone’s happy,” Sam observed. “What’s up?”

With a shrug, Danny struggled for enough space to open his locker and pull out the books he’d need for Lancer’s class. No doubt the teacher would give them busy work after the quiz in an attempt to keep everyone distracted. “I don’t know. I guess I just had a really good night?”

“You were able to sleep again?” Tucker finally looked up from his PDA. “Huh. I wonder why no one’s been bothering you lately.”

“As long as I get to sleep and nothing happens because of it, I don’t care.” Danny shoved his textbook and workbook into his bag, zipped it closed, and shut the locker. 

“I don’t know, Danny,” Sam tilted her head and pushed away from where she’d been leaning, her personal kid-free zone expanding as she did so. “That’s the third night in a row you’ve come to school practically skipping.”

“Yeah, dude,” Tucker snickered. “If my dreams were that good, I'd never wake up!”

“What I’m saying is that maybe something is going on. We should look into it in case the ghosts are planning something.”

“What, you don’t think I can have nice dreams on my own? Come on, Sam.”

“Actually, Sam might have a point. You’d usually be snappy and pouty about something by now.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Guys, I’m fine. Nothing’s going on.” He slung his now filled backpack over his shoulder and added in a lower voice, “If something ghost-related was going on in my dreams, I would know. Ghost sense, remember?”

“Maybe your sense doesn’t go off when you’re dreaming?” Tucker offered weakly. 

“It always worked before.” Seeing the still dubious looks on his friend’s faces, Danny felt a flicker of annoyance. “Anyways, my parents are having a barbecue this weekend and you'll probably be on their invitation list, so…”

“Be prepared to get jumped and smothered with paper,” Tucker gave Danny a thumbs up, his gaze flicking back to his PDA without question. “Got it.”

“Danny,” Sam sighed, knowing full well what he was doing. She didn’t say anything else after that, though, and Danny was thankful for it. After a few moments of silence, Tucker looked like he was about to start up another conversation, but the bell rang and cut him off as pandemonium broke out. The trio were swept into the ensuing mad tide of students that were now scrambling to get to class, Sam losing her bubble and Tucker being knocked into Danny, nearly losing hold of his PDA in the process. Years of weaving through crowds ensured that they were able to stick together for the most part, but talking was completely off the table as they tried not to get trampled by larger students.

Danny and his friends were practically ejected from the hallway once they reached the door to Lancer’s class, all three stumbling into the open room in relief.

“Air!” Tucker flung his hands above his head, throwing himself forward and falling to his knees. “Sweet, sweet air!” 

Even Sam stretched dramatically in the kid-free space. Meanwhile, Danny rubbed his stinging side where he’d been elbowed and then later wacked by a textbook.

“Mr. Foley,” Lancer eyed the three teens with an unamused stare, “I would appreciate it if you took a seat at a desk rather than the floor.”

Tucker scrambled to his feet and darted to his seat, not wanting to test his teacher so early in the day. Danny and Sam followed close behind, not even trying to hide their snickers. Danny hung his bookbag on the back of his chair, Tucker doing the same on his right while Sam settled down directly behind him. The final bell, morning announcements, and attendance passed in a blur and the next thing Danny knew, he was staring down at his teacher’s latest attempt to torture his students. 

It was just a review from last year and it  _ should  _ have been easy. But he couldn't remember anything. 

Realizing that completing the quiz was futile, Danny’s head met his desk and he let out a low groan.

So much for his good morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 2! This one was really fun to write, though Danny's part did give me a little trouble in the beginning. Stubborn character refused to cooperate for the longest time, haha. I'd like to thank Trance for beta-reading this chapter and for inspiring me with music to help get me past that Danny portion.
> 
> Just to avoid any confusion, this story is going to be switching back and forth between memories and current time between Danny and Phantom. Since chapter 1 was Phantom's memory and Danny's current time, this one will be Danny's memory and Phantom's current time. Next chapter we'll be back to Phantom's memory and Danny's current time, and so on.
> 
> I also wanted to let you all know that writing for this story is going to be slowing down for me. I have a plan for the next couple chapters, but a new semester at college and various other irl things are going to make it hard to write for extended periods of time. I'll try not to leave you all hanging for too long, but I'll only be able to work on this in-between other projects, so the next update is probably going to take a while to complete.
> 
> Anyways, this is getting long enough, so onto the chapter!

**_1 Week Since the Accident_ **

**_(July)_ **

Danny’s parents were devastated when their carefully constructed portal refused to turn on. They practically disappeared for an entire month because of it. Maddie worked tirelessly, spending all her time down in the lab reworking formula after formula, considering every possible variable that could have thrown them off. Jack began sulking with a tub of fudge, trying to find comfort in the sweet dessert. He wasn't as good at theoretical math as he was at building, so aside from re-checking the wiring and inner mechanics of the machine a million times, Danny suspected his dad hadn’t known what to do with himself. 

But Danny didn’t pay it much mind. His dad sulked a lot whenever his inventions turned out to be faulty, so it wasn’t anything new. Besides, his parents always bounced back, usually with more gusto than before their failures—it was what they were known for. He knew this, so Danny didn’t start worrying, like  _ actually _ worrying, until his mother retreated from working in the lab. Danny didn’t really know how to react when she began avoiding the place like the plague, unable to face the possibility that she’d been  _ wrong. _

When Danny had gone down into the basement with Sam and Tucker, it was just to look around and show them the failed project his parents had become so heartbroken over. He’d climbed into the machine on a whim due to Sam’s questioning and tried to explain to his friends what it was meant to do. He didn’t know what had caused the thing to finally turn on, only that it  _ did, _ with him still poking around inside. 

The night after it happened, Danny was so drained from the day's events that he blacked out as soon as his head hit his pillow. The day after that, he’d found that getting any amount of sleep had become as difficult as trying to catch a fly with bare hands. Even seven nights after what Danny and his friends had dubbed  _ the accident, _ he was still struggling to turn his brain off long enough to get some actual rest. 

On the bedside table, his clock read 2:21AM. Moonlight from the uncovered window lit his bedroom in a soft glow, painting Danny in silver. He tossed and turned, unable to settle his racing mind. His frustrated flailing caused shadows to contort into dark figures along the walls, taunting him with their eerie presence and sending his brain into overdrive. Memories and phantom pains haunted Danny’s thoughts as he curled himself into a ball and hid under the blanket. But no matter what he did, he couldn’t escape the persistent chill in his chest, a constant reminder that something inside him was  _ not right.  _

Ever since the accident, whenever Danny shut his eyes, he saw blue-green electricity, could feel it coursing through his body like hot magma, scorching him from the inside out. Danny shuddered, an ache settling deep in his bones as he remembered how his insides had churned, becoming unbearably hot. Considering the invention was supposedly ripping its way into another dimension, he didn’t think melting into a human puddle was far from what he’d actually experienced. 

_ At least I’m still breathing, _ he tried to rationalize. But Danny’s already strong grip on his pillow tightened when the foreign cold radiating from his chest wriggled and  _ thrummed, _ as if challenging the thought. More memories flooded his mind, unbidden and unwanted. Danny tried shutting them out by squeezing his eyes closed, but they just continued on behind his eyelids, making his shoulders quiver. 

_ Danny screeched in agony, his back arching as electricity set his body alight. It felt like he was being ripped apart from the inside out, his blood broiling against every nerve, until all he could register was the excruciating heat. _

_ There was a sudden pressure in his chest, as if something had slammed into him, and Danny had a brief moment of clarity. He thought that was it, he was going to explode or something equally as horrifying and die right there, right in front of his friends.  _

_ But instead, the pressure knocked all the breath from Danny’s lungs, cutting off his scream and launching him backwards. In an instant his veins went from unbearably hot to ice cold, a chilly wave erupting near his heart. It rippled across his body, a tender balm that soothed the flames and sparks that rattled through his bones even as he crashed to the ground outside the now functioning portal. _

Danny would never forget his friends’ screams, nor the terror saturating the room as he passed out in a pile of icy limbs on the lab floor. When he’d awoken half an hour later, everything felt...  _ wrong. _

Really, he should have been dead.

Well. 

Permanently dead.

_ No.  _ Danny shook his head, rolled onto his back, and shoved the blanket away so he could trace the bioluminescent constellations plastered to his ceiling.  _ Don’t think like that. _

He was still alive, still here. Everything was  _ fine. _ But the thing in his chest refused to leave, distracting him so much that even counting the stars above couldn’t take Danny’s mind off what he’d become that terrifying day. 

The ball of cold fluttered as images of a boy with bright green eyes, white hair, and a glowing face stared back at him through Sam’s pocket mirror—and later the bathroom mirror after he panicked and ran into the other room for a better look. Thank goodness his family hadn’t been home to hear his screech, or he would have invited a whole lot of trouble to the already insane situation trying to explain himself. 

For instead of seeing Danny Fenton in that mirror, his reflection was of someone who echoed his appearance, but was completely opposite in every way.

As if on cue, a spark ignited somewhere near Danny’s heart and a halo of white light rimmed by blue appeared over his chest. It split, that same wave of cold from the accident washing over him again. He could feel things inside him moving, changing, and rearranging as his form shifted into  _ Something Else. _ To Danny’s horror, as the rings passed over him, his PJ’s were replaced with a pitch black jumpsuit, white gloves and boots. 

It was the same outfit he’d exited the portal with one week earlier. The same outfit the other boy in the mirror had worn.

Danny launched upright with a shriek and scrambled backwards on the bed, trying to escape the otherworldly  _ thing _ his body turned into. His back hit the headboard with a bang and the shock caused the now intense cold in his chest to ripple. The next thing Danny knew, he was falling through his bed, a flash of dark colors passing across his vision as he phased into the floor and emerged through the kitchen ceiling. His upper back hit the edge of the dining table before he flopped face-first onto the ground, his jaw smacking painfully against the floor. 

Danny lay there, groaning at the sting between his shoulder blades and teeth. He slowly rolled onto his side and brought his knees up to his chest. One hand lifted to cradle his hurt face, but he jerked it away at the touch of cold latex. In his chest the ball of ice continued to twist and curl in a nauseating swirl, making Danny feel as if he were about to vomit. 

The thing pulsed and let out random bursts of extra-chilly sensation that radiated up his body. Danny’s skin began to crawl when he realized that the cold was increasing and  _ spreading. _ It made its way to his upper back, icy tendrils wrapping around the hurt area like a soft blanket of snow. His breathing stuttered when the pain there dulled and he didn’t know whether to scream in fear or confusion when it disappeared completely. He did neither. The cold then migrated from his back to Danny’s jawline, trailing a gentle caress up his spine until it reached its mark, soothing the ache in his teeth until it was no more. 

Danny’s voice refused to work properly, the sensation beyond weird and unlike anything he’d ever felt before. All he managed to get out was a distressed whine as the cold  _ finally _ retreated and settled into a steady pulse where his heart should be, as if satisfied with its work. 

When the cold showed no signs of getting stronger or repeating whatever the heck it just did, Danny cracked his eyes open. The utter brightness of the room immediately caught him off guard, so he shut his eyes for a moment and squinted to let them adjust

He tried to sit up, but then he saw  _ it. _ His hand. His  _ gloved _ hand was directly in front of his face, pressed against the tile, ready to lift him up. A white glow seemed to emanate from behind the fabric, casting a bright ethereal light onto the floor. In that moment, it dawned on Danny that the strange lighting must have been due to  _ him. _ Cautiously, Danny curled his fingers into a fist. The light shifted with the movement, gliding over the tile like water. Wide-eyed, he opened his hand and pressed his palm to the floor, then curled his fingers again, entranced by how every shift caused shadows to weave into faded patterns across the room. 

He lifted his other hand and ran it along the sleeve of his arm. Danny expected it to pass through, but it didn’t. Everything was solid.  _ He _ felt solid. The spandex suit was smooth under his chemical-resistant glove, and he could feel the pressure of where he touched as he should. But given his parents’ theories, he wasn’t supposed to. 

Not if Danny was what he thought he was. 

_ No.  _ The cold in his chest expanded and brushed against his ribcage, reminding Danny that he  _ shouldn’t _ be glowing. That he  _ shouldn’t _ be wearing gloves or a suit or… or…. He lifted himself onto his knees, fear making him fumble, nearly sending him sliding back onto his face for a second time. With all his might Danny tried to shove the cold away, to get it to let go of whatever hold it had on him. It fought back stubbornly, resisting Danny’s attempts to force it back into its metaphorical box.

“I’m not dead,” he whispered, shaky but in absolute conviction, his voice reverberating off the walls with an unnatural echo. “I’m not. _ So go away.” _

There was another, weaker pulse before the cold released him with a spark that, once again, ignited over his heart. The rings of light washed over Danny’s form, darkness overtaking the glow he’d been emitting. Looking down, Danny struggled to make out the outline of two very human hands now pressed against the tile.

The teen breathed in deep and tried to calm his rapidly beating heart. A heart that had been still mere moments before. Once his knees stopped shaking, Danny stumbled to his feet and crossed his arms over his chest. He could feel the icy  _ thing _ near his heart retreat even further back until it was nothing but a faint wisp. Good. Danny took a couple more deep breaths, collecting himself, before making his way towards the living room. Not wanting to risk falling through the floor again, he dropped onto the couch and prayed for sleep to take him. 

It didn’t.

~~~~~

**_3 Years Since the Accident_ **

**_(Mid-September)_ **

The void was thick and heavy, a nervous whirl of emotions saturating the darkness. The swirling anxiety dragged and pushed the little light’s own feelings into a familiar spiral, one that it— _ he _ —had grown well accustomed to. 

A white gloved hand reached out and placed a gentle touch on the transparent barrier before it, right over where Danny’s pencil tapped relentlessly against his desk. The fingers curled against the glass-like surface, almost as if trying to grasp the pale hand inside. Between Danny’s arms, right in the center of the frame, was today’s quiz. The image floated in the endless emptiness, one of only three sources of light in the darkness. 

The quiz was just a handful of questions designed to see if anyone remembered last year’s major topics. Even so, the first question, the only short response on the page, was left unanswered as Danny’s mind raced to find a solution. 

_ Both poets Sophocles and Shakespear write with differing ideas of Fate, Destiny, and Human Choice. What are some general instances where Sophocles’ characters in “Oedipus Rex” embrace Fate? Conversely, how do characters in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” contend with Destiny versus their own Personal Will? _

The incessant tapping increased until Danny was shushed by another nearby student. His anxiety swelled into a knot, pushing the dreadful heaviness deeper into the void as he was forced to remain still. The glove slid down under the unexpected surge before rising back into place, a second glove appearing on the opposite side of the screen, bracing against the image.

“Hey, it’s getting a little hard to move in here, Danny,” a voice said. The sound resonated with an unnatural echo, a wispy cadence similar to that of wind blowing through a canyon. “There's no grade for this quiz, Lancer said so himself.”

A boy, the owner of the voice, drifted closer to the image until his nose was nearly touching the screen. A strange white glow emanated from inside him and merged with the light coming from the image, making his bleach-white hair and toxic green eyes shine against the dark surrounding him. On his chest the iconic  _ Danny Phantom _ insignia stood out against the black jumpsuit he wore. 

“So why are you worrying?” 

Phantom tilted his head as the barrier went dark, becoming as black as the void, save for a weak shimmer that radiated across its surface like ripples in a lake. A loud thud echoed through the space, accompanying the loss of the image. Phantom knew his Spark well enough to imagine Danny shutting his eyes and dropping face-first onto the desk for a third time since the quiz started. Phantom shook his head, Danny’s sense of defeat making his own shoulders droop.

“No, don’t give up; you can do this.” He heard a long, drawn-out sigh coming from the shimmering barrier. Unwilling to let Danny sulk, Phantom let his own head drop forward, feeling the static-filled material of the screen bump against his forehead. “Please, Danny.  _ Listen. _ You only need to calm down and  _ think. _ ”

Behind him, a little to the left, a shining blue orb of warmth rose up and flickered with a rapid pulse, frustration radiating from it in waves. A wispy chime echoed into the void with each blink, which got Phantom to whip his head around. 

“There you are!” He released the screen to cup the blue light, his Danny-orb, in a delicate hold. A repelling force prevented him from touching his friend _ ,  _ who was hovering an inch above his gloves. Long ago he’d found that Danny and the orb were the same, but different. Together, they were his  _ Spark _ , and apart they were his  _ Danny _ and  _ Danny-orb _ . “Where did you go?”

Danny-orb flickered lazily, a series of whistles and melodic chimes echoing from his friend.

“Don’t be rude; you’re the one who left,” Phantom pouted. “Now, I know you can remember this, Fenton.” He used the other’s last name, so that his Spark knew he was being serious.

Another flicker and an equally pouty whistling sound caused Phantom’s eyebrows to crease. 

“I don’t know how, but you should be able to.” He vaguely recalled the lesson from last year himself, but Phantom hadn’t been able to see Lancer’s presentation since Danny had taken to looking out the window instead of at their teacher, so some details about what was said were a bit fuzzy. “I believe it has  _ something _ to do with how the characters deal with the paranormal. You weren’t entirely zoned out during the lesson so it should come back if you think about it.”

Danny-orb remained silent, as if mulling Phantom’s words over. The image reappeared as Danny sat back up, sighed  _ again _ , and resumed his stare-off with the quiz. A tendril of resignation was starting to work its way into the void, Danny-orb dulling in Phantom’s hands as his Spark grew more accepting of his evident failure. 

Phantom frowned and crossed his legs, appearing as if he were sitting in midair. He cradled his Spark of warmth closer, drawing Danny-orb near his core. A faint green glow enveloped Phantom’s hands and entered his friend, mixing with the permanent green streak in Danny-orb’s white center. With a practiced concentration, Phantom let his chilly soul seep into and quiet his human’s rapid heartbeat.

“Just listen to me,” he whispered. “Calm yourself…”

On the other side of the screen, Danny breathed in deep. As he released a low exhale through his mouth, his tense arms began to relax.

“...and let the answer come to you.”

Danny remained still for a few moments, the screen narrowing as he squinted at the despicable piece of paper before him. Then, slowly, he lifted his pencil to the quiz and began writing. Hesitant at first, as if he were unsure, then more confidently as the idea clicked into place. Soon, he was hastily scribbling down his thoughts before he could lose them.

Phantom’s frown turned into a wide grin and he hugged his friend tighter. He was unable to hold back a giddy laugh as his core soared with pride. 

Whether or not the answer was correct was anybody’s guess, but at least Danny was able to fill out the quiz. Last time his Spark turned in an empty test Lancer looked about ready to skin him alive, the teacher’s expression rivaling Skulker’s glare when they fought. The comparison made Phantom laugh harder. 

When his laughter quieted, Danny-orb lifted away from him. His friend rose in the dark and glowed brighter. Phantom let his hands fall to his side and watched as Danny-orb did an enthusiastic bob in the air over his head. Blink, whistle, blink, whistle. On and on Danny-orb repeated that pattern until the heaviness lifted.

Phantom let himself float upwards so he could hover in the center of the screen’s glow. He couldn’t wipe the smile from his face, the relief radiating from his Spark infectious. He uncrossed his legs and kicked out into the dark with a foot, the action flipping him onto his back. Danny-orb returned, did a happy twirl, and came to rest above the insignia on his chest. Phantom brought his hands around the other, keeping Danny-orb steady between his palms.

“I know I keep saying this, but you need to stop worrying so much,” he said, his grin turning playful. “That’s supposed to be  _ my _ job.” 

Danny-orb swayed in his hold, letting out a long echoing whistle.

“Well, it is!  _ Someone _ has to worry about you, Mr. ‘I can’t go anywhere without putting myself in danger!’ And it can’t be you because worry does not suit you.”

His friend’s light got brighter as Danny-orb moved from above Phantom's insignia to the space between his chin and shoulder. The gentle repelling force that kept them apart pushed against Phantom’s skin as Danny-orb tried to get as close to him as possible. Phantom chuckled and brought up a hand to place over his friend, enough to feel the electric push against his palm.

“Alright, alright. I’ll stop. Just do your best with the quiz. Remember, it’s only a review, so there’s no pressure.”

Danny-orb got brighter and gave him a low chime in an affirmative, then dimmed back down to normal. His friend’s light stayed at a steady glow while Danny finished the short response and moved onto the multiple choice. There was a hint of anxiety at the first question, but Phantom simply reached out with his cold core, letting a soft green glow trickle from his hand into his Spark, quelling the warm anxiousness before it could take root and fester. 

The quiz went by relatively fast after that, Danny becoming a little more sure in his answers, though he very obviously guessed the last two questions. Even Phantom couldn’t make heads or tails out of them, so he let it slide. He just chalked it up to something that had been taught when they’d been out fighting off some ghostly attacker.

A rising elation enveloped the void and made Danny-orb begin to glow a bright neon blue. His friend pulled away from Phantom and left to hover by the screen. Danny-orb stayed there, pulsing with satisfaction as Danny took out his workbook and flipped to the assigned pages.

It was only busywork, to keep students from talking once they were done. Still, Phantom sent a curious look towards the book. It seemed like they were going over some vocabulary concepts today. 

He righted himself, posed as if he were laying on his stomach, his cheek resting on a hand. He scanned the page as best he could, but reading was always rather difficult, which made Renaissance Era English especially challenging. Terms like ‘Spenserian Stanza’ and ‘Vernacular’ jumped out at him in the text. Wanting to understand, he decided to try reading a few definitions provided in the margins, going for one that looked the simplest first.

“Human-is..humanism? An intel-intellec-ectu…al...” He stammered, barely even three words into the definition and already finding parts that were hard to pronounce. Written words were just so heavy and awkward, the translation becoming garbled at some point between his eyes and mind. His expression slowly went from curious to downcast until he had to look away, embarrassed by the failure. 

Danny-orb seemed to notice his change in demeanor and floated over. Phantom didn’t really notice his friend until Danny-orb questioned him with a soft squeak-like whistle. Phantom looked up, a little flustered at being caught. Danny-orb moved closer, brushing against his shoulder with a low hum, and Phantom let out a sigh.

He looked at his friend solemnly. “I already tried, Danny.”

Danny-orb whistled loudly by his ear, switching between a higher and lower pitch and sounding almost like a tweeting bird because of it. Then his friend pushed more boldly against Phantom’s shoulder in encouragement. 

Phantom blinked and slowly turned back to the screen. “You think so?”

Danny-orb let out an excited chime, bobbing up and down as if to say,  _ yes. _

“...Alright,” Phantom took a deep breath, “one more try, then.” He found the definition again. “Humanism: an intell...ect-u-al move-movement of the Renaissance that re-store-ed the study of the class… classics?” Danny-orb bobbed in an affirmative and Phantom grinned, triumphant in clearing the first part of the definition. Feeling the reassuring, steady press of his friend against his shoulder made reading seem a lot easier now.

“...and fo-cu-cused on human life he-e-ere and now,” he finished, his grin widening impossibly. Danny-orb whistled and zipped around him in circles, celebrating the victory. Though Phantom wasn’t sure if he understood exactly what the word meant, he felt a surge of joy at his Spark’s approval of the attempt. Feeling bolder, he decided to try another, longer definition. 

“An-anthro...po...pocen… centric—An-thro-po-cent-trick?”

His voice wavered and for a moment Phantom thought that maybe he should have stopped while he was ahead. But then Danny-orb flew directly in front of Phantom’s nose, bobbed once, and then went back to pressing against his shoulder. He decided to keep going.

“When some-one or some-thing is… anthro-anth...  _ that, _ they bee-leave that… that human be-ings are the cent-ral or most sig-signi...” Phantom moved closer, his eyes squinting in determination. “Signi-fuh… can’t. Significant? Significant! Species on the plan-n-net, or they are a...assess-ing re-al-it-y th-through an ex-clue-sive… exclusively! Human per...per… specter? Spect-ive? Perspective!”

Danny-orb let out a squeal-like sound when he finished that one, which made Phantom start laughing all over again. He reached out and hugged his friend close.

“Thank you,” Phantom’s core thrummed loudly, “my Spark.” 

Danny-orb whistled, blinking bright. They stayed like that for a few moments, until Danny-orb began to gently push against Phantom’s arm. He let his friend go, and watched as Danny-orb left to resume hovering in front of the screen.

Phantom smiled and read the last term again, faster and surer this time around. His head tilted in thought when he tried to relate the word to what he knew about literature in some way. He drew a blank on it. Maybe he had to read the article to understand? Though, the word  _ did _ remind him of Danny’s parents. So he repeated it, thinking of them, until he could remember the definition, for future reference. He decided to try reading some more, moving onto another, shorter term. All the while he stuttered and stammered, his Danny-orb sent him encouraging flashes of light and whistling chimes, though his friend stayed fixed in front of the screen, seemingly focused on the Other World more than Phantom now.

After a few minutes of sounding out and reading as many words as he could manage, Phantom’s gaze began to drift towards Danny’s hands. His Spark was trying his best to answer the fill-in-the-blank questions on the page opposite the article. Every flick of Danny’s wrist and shift of his fingers had the pencil gliding over paper to create wide, rounded lettering. Danny made writing look so easy, every precise and well practiced movement creating a quick curve or line as if it were the simplest thing in the world. 

Phantom was happy to watch him, mesmerized by the familiar motions. Over time, his eyelids began to feel heavy, the pattern making him lazy, until his head fell low enough to rest on crossed arms. Slowly, his eyes drifted closed. It wasn’t long after that when he felt a warm pressure settle near the crook of his elbow, the one opposite of where his cheek was pressed. Phantom didn’t have to open his eyes to know that his friend had come back to him. This close, he could hear the faint melodic beat that Danny-orb naturally created by his ear. As if mirroring his Spark, Phantom could both feel and hear the same gentle rhythm in the hum of his own core.

It was moments like this that made Phantom reflect over how lucky he was. To know that he wasn’t alone in the darkness, that he had someone to look out for, and someone who would equally watch over him, was bliss. This feeling, the warmth and steady breath of life his Spark gave, Phantom wouldn’t trade for anything. 

For what more could there possibly be, other than this?

Phantom didn't know how long he stayed like that, listening to the steady sounds of Danny’s pencil and the melody by his ear. Eventually, the time set aside for the quiz ended and Lancer began his lecture, which was basically a review of key terminology from last year that they would be using to develop skills in the first unit. Phantom’s intrigue was renewed and he cracked his eyes open to watch and listen. He held onto every word, took mental notes, and filed away important information for later.

Unfortunately, now it was Danny’s eyelids that kept drooping dangerously low, a lazy tiredness curling around the void as their teacher droned on. It made Phantom equally tired, distracting him halfway through a really interesting bit about how classical literature paved the way for modern storytelling. His own eyelids began to droop once more, and he considered just letting himself sleep… or whatever equivalent it was that he did.

But before Phantom’s mind could fall into a deep rest, a sensation floated in behind him, somewhere to his right. A spark of something invasive that made a shiver run up his spine and immediately banished his tiredness.

Cold.  _ Foreign _ cold.

**_Danger_ ** _. _

Phantom shot up, a wisp of hot blue breath passing his lips. In his arms, his Spark trembled as an icy mist wafted from it, disappearing into the void. The same vapor enveloped the screen, Danny letting out a gasp as frigid air escaped from his mouth. His Spark’s previous lull of boredom was replaced with relief as Danny’s hand shot up.

“I’d tell you no if I thought that would stop you,” Lancer grated, already knowing what the teen was going to ask. “But based on past experience, I’ll refrain. You may go, Mr. Fenton. Do try to return before the bell this time.”

Those who hadn’t fallen asleep during their teacher’s lecture snickered as Danny rose to his feet. Phantom caught a brief glimpse of his Spark’s awkward smile in the reflection of another student’s glasses when he passed by the disappointed teacher and exited the room. His core fluttered happily at the momentary image of black hair and blue eyes, despite the urgent situation.

**_Who's it going to be this time?_ ** He wondered, shaking the odd feeling in his chest away as he floated closer to the screen. He narrowed his eyes and kept a vigilant lookout for the ghost who dared seek out his Spark, staying on high alert as Danny looked left and right. Phantom went still and Danny-orb let out an alarmed trill when they both spotted a dark figure leaning against the lockers at the very end of the hall. It was completely black save for a pair of red eyes that were staring directly at  _ Danny. _ Phantom felt a low growl rise in his throat at the decidedly evil look the ghost was giving his Spark. Before either of them could react, a dark purple smoke enveloped the other entity before it vaulted around the corner. 

“Hey!” Danny shouted and raced after it, following the cold trail left in its wake. 

Phantom tensed, ready to spring into action as the many corridors of the school flashed past, the shadow always on the edge of Danny’s vision. It stayed in his periphery until Danny blinked, and suddenly it was gone. But still his Spark ran on, following where he believed the fiend had gone, the residual cold impression guiding him. A turn left, a sharp right, then forward. 

Luckily, it wasn’t long after losing the shadow that they heard a nearby scream and the sound of a door banging open. Danny adjusted his course, darting through another long stretch of hallway before turning a final corner. More screaming filled the hall as a group of students and teachers raced by, oblivious of the teenager running in the opposite direction. For Phantom, the foreign coldness reappeared somewhere behind where the screen floated—somewhere in front of his Spark. Danny-orb wedged its way between him and the screen, right as Danny made it to the classroom the group had run from. Phantom floated back a little so he could hold his friend while Danny’s hand grasped the door handle to push it open.

“Ready?” Phantom asked, his core thrumming loudly with a building energy that just  _ itched _ to be set free, to  _ defend. _ His Spark responded with a bright flash and echoing chime, tendrils of blue warmth swirling around Danny-orb like a cascade of miniature solar flares. A similar green whirlwind of light was coming out of Phantom’s chest, lighting up his insignia in bright neon. The two colors seemed to reach for the other, turning the space between them a vibrant turquoise and igniting a static-filled storm as the two opposite forces came close to the other. 

Phantom heard the door shut behind Danny, but he didn’t take his eyes off Danny-orb. He needed the go ahead, to hear his Spark say those three magical words they were both waiting for.

_ “I’m going ghost!” _

In an instant, the repelling force keeping Phantom away from his Spark disappeared. In its place a magnetic gravity was created, the flares of blue and green light bursting forth and entwining with the other. This new force pulled them together in an instant, the loud snap of electricity accompanied by a blinding white spark, like a mini supernova, that enveloped Phantom and Danny-orb. At the same time, a shockwave of energy in the form of a white ring expanded outwards and appeared over Danny’s chest, right before splitting. A shared duality occurred then, Danny’s warmth disappearing into Phantom and circling around his core, strengthening it, and Phantom’s cold body enveloping Danny’s form and lending him his power. 

When Phantom opened his eyes, they glowed a brilliant neon green that shined even brighter than before. His body was partly transparent now, as if he’d gone half intangible. He could feel his Spark warming him from the inside out, making Phantom’s core thrum louder than ever with a distinctive electrical hum. For in that warmth was a boundless force that was indescribable. 

Phantom placed both hands on the now completely white screen and leaned forward, feeling the surface of it ripple and bend under the energy rolling off his gloves. He closed his eyes once more and took a deep breath, feeling the faint sensation of hot air filling his and Danny’s cold lungs, warming them both from the inside out. Like this, Phantom could feel his Spark resonating throughout him, their two souls blended into one. Though it was muted, Phantom could feel their body tense into a fighting stance, could feel their duel energy circling within their chests, and even the steady pulse of an ectoplasmic heart hidden within them. 

It was the most incredible thing Phantom has ever known.

When the initial awe that Phantom felt faded a little, he cleared all thoughts from his head and focused directly on  _ Danny. _ He let the images no-longer on the screen appear in his mind, looking through his Spark in real-time as Danny floated into the air. Gone were his Spark’s human hands, Phantom’s white gloves and black sleeves replacing them. Instead of loosely holding a pencil, they were now balled into fists, coiled back and ready to dish out damage if needed. 

Phantom got to work observing the scene, ready to alert Danny of anything unusual. His Spark was also looking around, trying to spot who it was that disrupted his school day. The classroom was a mess of scattered papers and upturned desks and chairs, but there was no sign of anything ghostly in the room save for a chilly temperature drop. 

“I don’t know if you know this,” Danny said to whoever was obviously hiding from him as he moved away from the door, “but my schedule for today does not include chemistry.”

“Chemistry?” an obnoxious, almost goofy voice replied. “I do not care about this ‘chemistry’ you speak of!” 

Phantom jerked back, almost losing the image in his head. The unexpectedness sent him reeling, confused. He recognized the voice, but… where had that shadow gone? It couldn’t have been  _ this guy, _ could it? He groaned sadly because if it was, then this was going to be a short fight, which meant he had less time to spend connected with his Spark than he’d originally thought. Even so, he also felt immensely relieved that there wasn’t any real threat.

“Oh, great,” Danny rolled his eyes, also seeming to realize who it was he’d picked a fight with. 

A blue head appeared from behind the teacher's desk, two small, beady red eyes peeking out from the hiding place. A short, stocky ghost in blue-grey overalls floated into view, a trail of plastic lidded containers full of paper and glass beakers following him as he loudly declared, “I am the Box Ghost! Beware my cardboard cubes of death!”

“You already tried ransacking the science lab last week, the chemistry lab isn’t any better,” Danny said, unphased. “And those are plastic, not cardboard.”

Phantom couldn’t help a chuckle, for Danny did have a point. He watched the other ghost point furiously in their direction.

“I am not the chemistry ghost!”

“I didn’t say you  _ were. _ Look, can we hurry this along?” Danny began to lazily charge an ectoblast. “I have class.”

The Box Ghost actually  _ shook, _ his teeth grating in anger. Phantom didn’t think he’d ever seen him this upset before. He would have been worried, if it weren’t for the fact that it was the  _ Box Ghost. _

“You  _ will _ fear me!”

“Yeah…  _ No.  _ I won’t.” 

**_Fear._ ** The thought of anyone trying to seek fear from others made Phantom’s amusement evaporate in an instant. He could practically feel his ectoplasm begin to broil in anger. He gladly felt the charge leave Danny’s hand, the rush of energy reverberating through Phantom’s arm, lighting it up with heat from the inside as power was drawn from his core and expelled. The weak blast hit the other ghost right in the stomach, sending him crashing into the wall behind the desk, out of sight. Almost immediately, the floating containers fell back to the floor. 

Danny reached for the thermos that was slung over his shoulder and flew to where the ghost had fallen, the device poised and ready. 

…Only to have an actual cardboard box shoved onto his head, his only warning a loud shout of “BEWARE!” which made him yelp, startled. 

Phantom jolted, the image in his head turning white, disrupted by his own surprise. He then winced, feeling a burst of cold air against his side as the Box Ghost flew past his Spark. He hastily tried to regain the lost view, not wanting to miss anything. 

He got the image back right as Danny pulled the box off his head and tossed it away. His Spark turned, ready to fire off another blast, but the Box Ghost was nowhere to be seen. Danny looked around the room twice, then flew out the window, trying to spot the fleeing ghost. But even the impression of cold Phantom had felt from before was gone. 

“Oh,  _ come on!” _ Danny shouted.

**“He got away,”** Phantom added, beyond annoyed. 

His Spark looked up at the sky with a heavy sigh. “Why do I feel like this is going to come back and bite me later?” 

**_“Probably because it always does,”_ ** Phantom muttered darkly and let his head drop forwards onto the screen. He opened his eyes and let the image disappear, then stared at the white emptiness before him with a frown. On one hand, he could look forward to merging with his Spark later to track the troublesome ghost down. On the other, he could easily conclude that this was going to be a very long day of ‘ghost and defender.’ Which meant that all his careful soothing was going to go right out the window. 

He felt their body turn and begin to fly forward, a light breeze brushing against Phantom’s face. His Spark was probably heading back to class now. 

Phantom felt a surge of frustration rise in his core. It was all so terribly  _ agitating.  _ Really, he should have been used to the universe throwing obstacles at them, especially things like this that got Danny riled up. He supposed that so long as one of them was able to keep a level head, his Spark might not suffer as much later.

If only doing so was easier done than said. 

Lunch was the first time the blue menace returned, as predicted. The Box Ghost took over the milk cartons and boxes of frozen food behind the counter, flinging them all over the place and not only destroying the cafeteria, but the hallway outside, too. Then later during Gym, the infernal ghost somehow took over the crates the dodgeballs were stored in and bombarded all the students with them and their contents, cutting Danny’s much needed workout short. Apparently they counted as some form of boxes, though Phantom stubbornly insisted the other was cheating with that one. After that, class was the absolute worst. Back with Lancer, the ghost threw  _ the same boxes _ he stole from the cafeteria at all the students again, covering their papers with bits of food. Almost everything they were working on had to be thrown out and redone. Thankfully the quiz from earlier was spared, safely tucked inside Lancer’s desk and far from the greasy cafeteria meatloaf. 

And.

He.

Just. 

Wouldn’t. 

_ Stop. _

Over and over again the Box Ghost appeared to destroy whatever room he was in before vanishing. Phantom could tell that the cost in damages alone was going to be appalling. It just served to make Phantom and his Spark's tempers flare, until Danny’s frustration bled into Phantom and Phantom's own annoyance fueled Danny. It became an infernal loop, impossible to tell where the negative emotions first originated from.

Needless to say, by the end of the day, both Phantom and his Spark were at their wits’ end with the Box Ghost. Even Sam and Tucker loudly voiced their own discontent with the situation. After class, they all spent the afternoon trying to hunt down the menace. But every time Phantom and his Spark got close, the other ghost would make a hasty escape. 

It was well past midnight before Danny gave up, resigning himself to the lecture he was bound to get due to another missed curfew. At least Jazz had an excuse ready when he finally did get home, otherwise that lecture would’ve dragged this not-so-great day on  _ forever. _

Phantom sighed and closed his eyes. He floated on his back in a starfish position while Danny marched up the stairs. Danny-orb was blinking in front of the screen and whistling in a low tone, a swirl of negativity dragging Phantom and his friend down. It made the void thick and heavy, the angry emotions clinging to them both like invisible tar.

When Danny made it to his room, he sent Jazz a text with a tired emoji so that he wouldn’t be bothered by her checking in on him. Then he promptly flopped face-first into bed with a groan, not even bothering to change into his pajamas. The screen disappeared, once again turning black as Danny’s eyes shut against his pillow.

Phantom understood his Spark’s pain. His own body felt sore and decently drained, the energy he’d used to shield Danny’s fragile form taking a good chunk of power from his core. Though it was nothing compared to the tiredness he knew his Spark must be feeling. 

As Danny’s breaths began to even out, Danny-orb’s blinking slowly halted. At the touch of warmth settling over him, Phantom peeked one eye open, watching as his friend pressed as close to his insignia as possible. A small flare of blue left Danny-orb, reaching for and escaping into Phantom’s chest. It made his core light up so bright that it shined clearly through his jumpsuit, a wave of warm power surging through him. Lingering pain and aches from being tossed into random objects started to fade as he began to recharge a lot more rapidly than before.

“You don't have to do that,” Phantom said, shivering slightly from the rush of strong sensation, though he made no move to stop his Spark. “I’m not that tired, so I should be good in an hour or two.”

Danny-orb blinked once, as if to shush him. Phantom smiled and reached out a hand to gently pat his friend. Only when his Spark deemed his core fully charged did the blue light connecting the two finally retreat. By then, Danny-orb had grown rather dull as exhaustion took over, drawing Phantom’s Spark closer to the realm of sleep. 

With careful movements, Phantom righted himself, his hands gently cupping Danny-orb so that his friend wouldn’t be jostled. 

“You should rest,” he said and floated over to the screen. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Danny-orb blinked at him, as if to make sure, and Phantom smiled reassuringly. He held his hands up towards the dark barrier, watching as Danny-orb lifted away, then hesitated.

“Go on,” Phantom urged. “I’ll keep your fears away, I promise.”

Danny-orb whistled at him, waiting a few more seconds before slowly moving forward and passing through the screen as if it weren't even there. Immediately, an almost ghostly aura enveloped his friend, a translucent blue shape appearing out of Danny-orb’s light. It expanded, creating a body, arms, legs, and a head, filling in details until Danny-orb was gone and Phantom could see Danny himself floating on the other side of the screen. His Spark’s head lifted and he looked around with wide eyes, like he always did whenever he finally fell into a deep sleep. 

Phantom watched as the image warped and changed around his Spark, colors appearing, shifting and rearranging in bright streaks as Danny’s mind began to weave its own image. A scene came into view, a lamp, a road, some trees—all morphing until they were solid. Phantom tilted his head curiously as Danny landed on a sidewalk and started walking down a random street. Phantom thought he recognized a part of it as being somewhere near the park, but was unsure.

So far, Danny seemed to be content, looking up at the sky with a small smile on his face. Perhaps this time, Danny’s mind would let him have some peace. 

“Maybe you won’t need my help tonight, after all,” Phantom murmured, matching Danny’s grin with his own.

Almost as soon as those words left his lips, something vaguely looking like a green net came out of nowhere and wrapped around Danny, capturing and sending him flying with its momentum. His Spark’s screech was drowned out by a loud jet that echoed through the air as Skulker appeared and pulled back his hand, which held a large cleaver-like blade. Phantom gasped, and quickly swiped across the screen, dismissing the entire scene right as Skulker’s metal fist began to descend.

“O-k,” Phantom breathed, his core thrumming with residual panic. “That’s a no, then.”

When he caught sight of Danny again, his Spark was curled into a ball, covering his head as he cowered in fear. The sight of his Spark’s trembling shoulders made Phantom go still. His insides turned colder and the white light he emitted grew fainter. There was a pang in his core, an ache that felt as if someone had punched a hole straight through his chest. An urge to protect, to defend, overwhelmed Phantom. He  _ needed _ to wipe that fear from his Spark’s face. A determined look crossed his features and he placed both hands against the screen, his inner light returning.

_ “My turn.” _

A green glow surrounded Phantom’s gloves as energy pooled into his palms. It built for a few seconds, the light becoming brighter. Then all at once Phantom released the energy he’d gathered, the smooth surface rippling like water as a green wave traveled across its surface. 

“What would you like to do?” Phantom pondered, the scene around Danny shifting as he thought. “You don’t like being alone. Do you want to spend time with Sam and Tucker?”

Phantom tapped the image twice, a green ripple spreading across the surface at each touch. On the other side of the screen, Danny stood up and ran over to his friends when they appeared in the dark with him. 

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Phantom hummed and moved his hand across the screen, shifting the scenery with a flash of green. “Do you want to go to space with them? The movies? You haven’t been to the arcade lately...” A storefront appeared, the word ARCADE printed in bold letters above its entrance. “Would you like to go there tonight?”

It took a moment for his Spark to gather his bearings in the new scene. Phantom watched as Danny spotted the arcade, his eyes widening with excitement as all memory of the previous dream was washed away by the here and now. Danny pointed to the arcade and started trying to get Sam and Tucker to follow him inside.

Phantom grinned, feeling his Spark’s fear evaporate in an instant. His hands raced across the screen in a pattern, each movement painting more of the dream into something Danny could interact with. He watched as the trio entered the building and tapped where the doors were located so that he could get a view from inside. 

He created a fast pass for Danny and his friends to get through the check-in quickly and encouraged them into the main part of the arcade with some music from Danny’s favorite games. He spent an incredible amount of time detailing each machine and mapping the layout of the arcade as best he could from memory. The way Danny raced from console to console with Tucker, both boys in awe of the wide selection, made each painstaking creation completely worth it. He even managed to create a first person shooter he thought Sam would like, and was pleased to see that the Sam in Danny’s dream approved. 

It wasn’t long before Sam challenged Danny and Tucker to beat her score in the shooter. Phantom gave them all a generous amount of coins to spend when Danny immediately took up the challenge. 

Tucker inserted the coins while Phantom’s Spark picked up a blaster, the barrel lighting up with a purple glow as the start screen came to life. Danny aimed the fake gun and there was something about how  _ gracefully _ he fell into a battle stance that made Phantom feel a surge of…  _ something _ . That something only continued to grow as his Spark effortlessly decimated the first couple levels. He watched Danny rise above his virtual opponents, only to fail and be forced to start over, Sam’s score remaining elusive. That strange feeling of  _ something _ rose higher in Phantom’s core each time his Spark lost but refused to give up and accept defeat. A strong conviction was making Danny positively glow on his side of the screen, and Phantom was loving every moment of his Spark’s energetic enthusiasm. 

Phantom smiled fondly when Danny  _ finally _ got his hard-earned high score. As a reward for his Spark’s efforts, he weaved an avalanche of tickets into the dream, grinning when Danny’s eyes lit up with delight. His Spark let out a triumphant shout and high-fived Tucker, Sam rolling her eyes with a good-natured smile at her friend’s hard-earned victory.

Right then, Phantom caught sight of Danny’s face, and his weaving of the dream halted. As if in a trance, he slowly placed his hand over his Spark, his thumb gingerly rubbing circles into the screen where Danny could be seen talking with his friends. Something in Phantom’s chest twisted at the sight, and yet a sweet bubbly thing overcame him when he saw the beautiful light dancing in  _ his _ Danny’s eyes. His Spark eventually laughed and started walking towards another console, snapping Phantom out of his daze. He blinked in confusion, looking down at his chest, which was where the sound of his now  _ very loudly _ thrumming core could clearly be heard.

Phantom didn't know what this feeling was and he wasn't entirely sure about how to find out. Danny-orb wasn’t much for explaining things like this to him. So Phantom shook his head, pushing his odd feelings aside for later analysis. Right now, he had to focus on Danny. Still, as he resumed his intricate dreamweaving, he could hear his core thrumming  _ that much  _ louder whenever he caught sight of his Spark’s wide smile. 

As the night wore on and the dream continued to unfold, a steady, cold wave of contentment began to radiate from Phantom’s core. He could feel all the frustration from the day’s events melt away as he, too, began to get lost in his Spark’s happiness. 

But the calm was shattered when an abrupt ball of  _ Something Else _ appeared directly behind Phantom. He shivered, a warm vapor escaping from his mouth before he could even think to stop it. The  _ Something Else  _ was a distant, wispy cold. Barely anything at all, yet it still tugged at Danny, luring him away from his peaceful slumber. 

“No, no, no! Not  _ now _ ,” Phantom whined. 

Danny was finally,  _ finally _ in a better mood. He didn’t want to pull his Spark from the dream, to break the veil he’d so carefully crafted for him. He fought to keep Danny’s ghost sense from disturbing his friend, to let him ride out the involuntary alarm. Really, there was no need for his Spark to investigate. It was probably just the Box Ghost coming back for the millionth time that day, nothing life-threatening or important. Right?

He focused on creating another game for Danny to play, trying to keep the other asleep. 

But when the cold intrusion turned absolutely frigid, it threw that plan out the window and caused Phantom to whirl around, his eyes wide as he stared into the sinister darkness. Somehow, what had been a faint chill had become the coldest ball of ice he’d ever felt from another ghost, even more so than Spectra’s invasive, siphoning words and Pariah Dark’s ferocious, controlling energy.

It felt  _ wrong. _

“Wake up…” Phantom whispered, his throat suddenly too constricted to talk. He floated backwards until his back hit the screen. At the touch he found his voice and repeated, louder, “Danny,  _ wake up!” _

The cold got stronger, and Phantom got the strange impression that it was somehow getting  _ closer.  _ He whirled around and began pounding on the glass-like surface keeping his Spark separated from him and oblivious to the threat. The meticulously constructed image inside the screen distorted and warped with each frantic blow, the arcade melting away. Danny became confused, then terrified as the muddled shapes of his friends began to twist together into a single large, dark figure.

“DANNY!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... that was chapter 2! Again, this is my first fic and I’m not sure how well my writing style is translating. I’m really proud of how I wrote Phantom, but what do you guys think? I’d love to know what’s working in the fic and what I need to touch up on, just in general. So any feedback is very much appreciated ^_^
> 
> Also, as a side note, since I’m trying to follow the show as closely as possible while filling in some gaps, I have a number of DP fun facts and random bits of pseudo science that went into this chapter. If you’re interested in stuff like that, here are the main ones:
> 
> 1\. The suits Jack and Maddie wear are referred to as jumpsuits multiple times in the show rather than actual hazmat suits, which is why Phantom specifically wears a jumpsuit here rather than a hazmat suit.
> 
> 2\. Jack mentioned that his own suit was made out of spandex in the episode “The Fenton Menace,” which means that Danny’s is most likely spandex as well. I decided that his gloves should be a mixture of spandex, latex, and other types of plastic-like material to make them chemical-resistant for the fic, to match the functionality aspect of a proper lab suit.
> 
> 3\. Danny is looking in the opposite direction of the “ON” button when he presses it during the theme song, hence why he doesn’t know how the portal turned on in this fic.
> 
> 4\. The cold trail that Danny follows and cold presence Phantom feels when a ghost is nearby is based on the real world phenomenon of cold spots, which are thought to happen due to an entity absorbing heat from the surrounding area and converting it into energy to manifest.
> 
> 5\. Danny-orb is Danny’s soul personified. Its appearance is based on a mixture of sightings of “ghost orbs” or “spirit orbs” in the paranormal community, as well as the fabled will-o'-the-wisp, which appear to wandering travelers as ghost lights in forests, marshes, etc.
> 
> There are a bunch of other hidden things in this chapter, but this is getting long, so I'll leave it there for now. Let me know if you want me to keep doing random facts like these in future chapters because I have a LOT more to share if you guys are up for it!


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